Christmas Calmer

Let's face it:  Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it can also be stressful.

The stress, of course, isn't only for the grownups.  Kiddos feel it too.  Their routines are a little changed and they also pick up on the adult edginess.  With all the excitement of Christmas - seeing Santa, buying presents, decorating the tree, seeing twinkly lights - also comes a few moments of over stimulation    And that's not even considering the sometimes late nights.  Or the yummy treats.   Overstimulated kids are about as fun to be around as a lost Wise Man wandering through the desert.

To combat a little of this stress, today we made what I am calling the Christmas Calmer.  Basically it is a meditation jar with a Christmas theme.

Christmas Calmer Directions

1. Gather materials.  You'll need a plastic bottle with the label removed, glitter and/or confetti and a hot glue gun.  If you want to make the jar move more slowly you'll also need clear glue (see step 5 for more ideas). 
2. Head to the backyard and find a pine bough.  This is a good time to talk about evergreen trees and notice the difference in needles.  In just our backyard we found four different varieties of evergreens!
3. Stuff the pine branch into the bottle.  
4. Add a few teaspoons of glitter.  We also added star confetti for more sparkle and visual interest. 
5. If adding glue add it now.  You'll need almost the whole bottle of glue to make it slow down.  You could alternately use glycerin or liquid soap.  I didn't have any of these things on hand, so we skipped this step.  
6. Fill the bottle with water. 
7. Use hot glue gun to secure the lid. 
8. Hand to your child and let him know if he is ever feeling a little overwhelmed he can get his bottle, shake it and watch the glitter settle until he calms down.  

This has been a huge hit at our house.  Milo has been asking for his Christmas Calmer.  Leo loves watching the glitter, too.  Even I enjoy shaking it and just relaxing as I breathe and enjoy the season. 

Thanksgivin Prep

For the Thanksgiving celebration I am making the following yumminess:

• Cranberry sauce made of fresh cranberries, apricot jam and pineapple.  Spiced with cinnamon and ginger.  
• Macaroni and cheese with a ton of milk and butternut squash
• Pumpkin soup made of fresh pumpkin
• Apple pie

The Christmas Season Has Begun

Although I am typically a wait until after Thanksgiving is over before even thinking about Christmas type of girl, we have started a little early this year.  First it was just a few gifts I would buy for the boys when I saw them on sale.  Then it was the Winter Fun List.  And finally last night we attended the tree lighting of a local mall.  While we missed the actual tree lighting due to traffic and parking difficulties, we did catch the end of the parade.  I loved the parade with big balloons of reindeer and giant ginger bread men.  There were people on stilts dressed as Christmas trees and lots of festive music.  The fun atmosphere put me right in the holiday spirit (of consumerism at least).  Milo, however, did not like the loud speaker, the fire works or the general commotion.  He walked around with his hands over his ears until we made our way to a quieter portion of the outdoor mall.  Once there he enjoyed the lights plus it was close to the Lego store.

In spite of the crowds and the evening not going exactly as planned, we had a wonderful family night.  Everyone held it together and we enjoyed not only the holiday atmosphere  but also being with one another.  There must have been some type of Christmas miracle too because Leo actually slept though the night once we were home!

Another Christmas on the Books

I've said before that I often get a holiday hangover of sorts following the big Christmas celebration. This year, the feeling that I somehow messed up Christmas crept up on me before Christmas day even transpired. I was up late on Christmas Eve night, not putting together toys or finishing up details for breakfast the next morning, but ordering jammies. Matching pajamas for next year. For all of us. At 11:30 on Christmas Eve. While putting Milo to bed, I realized I never bought the requisite winter / Christmas pajamas for Christmas morning and it bothered me.

It also bothered me that we didn't put up a tree until the afternoon of Christmas Eve. And even then the tree didn't get ornaments - just lights and a star. It did the job, sure, but it was missing the magic.

I think the magic, is what I was missing last night on Christmas Eve. Of course, the magic wasn't missing for Milo. He was still excited to spend lots of time with us, Pa, GG and his uncles. He excitedly opened presents and played with new toys (big on Cars, Toy Story and Thomas the Train this year). For both nap and bedtime he requested bringing new toys to bed with him and I know he feels like one lucky and loved little boy (he so is).

Being two weeks away from having a baby on Christmas is exhausting. I couldn't do as much as I wanted to. We moved the Christmas day celebration from our house back to my parents. I'm glad we were still able to spend the day together, but I missed taking the burden off of them for a day.

We're still en flux figuring out our own holiday traditions - where do we go, who do we go with, where is Santa in all this, what about the reason for the season. Each year I feel like we put the puzzle pieces together a bit more. Some things have to go, but the really important parts stay.

Next year will be all different all over again. We'll have two kiddos to share the excitement and love with. And matching jammies for our family.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you and yours felt the magic and enjoyed your time together.

Christmas Thoughts

I have mentioned before how I am a little ambivalent about the whole Christmas thing. I mean I like the lights and holiday specials on television, but the overall consumerist nightmare gets to me. Plus, while I am vaguely religious, Chris really isn't anymore. So it doesn't even make sense in our house to focus on the birth of Jesus as the reason for the season. If anything, I can get down with the Solstice - celebrating the return of light over darkness, yes, please (and this thought of course can be carried over into the nativity story). Santa is a whole different issue. I don't feel right about totally ignoring him - he's everywhere, but we're not into the whole naughty and nice thing either.

Milo has seemed to pick up on all these mixed emotions and messages. Thinking it would be a good segue into Christmas, I bought an Elf on the Shelf book and figurine. At first Milo was excited about it, but as we started reading the book together his face got darker and darker until he ripped the book out of Chris' hands and threw it. What was I thinking? Milo doesn't like Santa and here we were reading him a book about an Elf who was going to live with us and spy on him in order to report back to Santa. It's messed up.

Today another Christmas hang up happened. We were grocery shopping when Milo saw a train set. Ensue 35 minutes of crying his eyes about wanting the train. I tried to patiently explain we weren't getting it. He would hopefully cry that maybe we would get it next time. And then the cashier said maybe he would get it on Christmas if he was good. Seriously?

So now Christmas is all about getting presents and according to Milo it is also when Buzz Lightyear comes. So, yep, I think that pretty covers my thoughts on the matter.

Stationery card

Extra Sweet Tidings Holiday Card

Create custom Christmas cards this holiday at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

This is one of the three holiday cards I designed (and will maybe send out) this year. I love online cards and found this one to be especially "sweet" with Milo's little face showing how proud he was of making the gingerbread house.

Fry Soup and the Birthday of One Dr. Seuss

A kid invented recipe is sure to please

and to a toddler it holds the pleasant table manner keys.

Milo’s been talking about it for days

and Mama added it to the menu with much praise.

What is it, you ask, that Milo created?

Why it’s fry soup unmitigated!

Clearly my rhyming skills have not much improved since the fifth grade when I last attempted stanzas of poetry, but my cooking skills have come a long way. For days, Milo has been pretending to make fry soup for his stuffed friends Bert and Ernie. Soup is easy to make in a pot (according to Milo you just throw various blocks in, stir and put the lid on) so he makes many variations of soup - mainly carrot and apple. His favorite soup to make, though, also contains his most coveted food - fries!

I started to wonder how I could make him fry soup for dinner because I knew he would enjoy it. At first I thought something cheesy and creamy would be the way to go, but we limit dairy so I went in another direction. Turns out chili is a great base for fry soup! Think chili cheese fries, but with more chili and less cheese. Basically, just make your favorite chili recipe and top with oven baked French fries along with your other favorite chili toppings (here some grated cheese and chopped avocado).

Fry soup was on the menu for this week anyway, but with Dr. Seuss's birthday being today, I thought the good Dr. would appreciate the silliness of a child-directed meal. I even (this might mean I need help) made vegan coconut cupcakes for dessert in honor of the big day.

I really appreciate all Dr. Seuss did to encourage reading to be a fun childhood activity. Plus, he left us with many great ideas we can talk to our children about:

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"

- Dr. Seuss

From the Heart

Each year Valentine's day seems to be about celebrating something different first it was unsure, awkward high school love, then it was crazy college love, after that I moved on to messed up love in my twenties and now I am finally settling into the delicious and secure love of a family. To be clear, I've always liked the "holiday" and find it harmless. In college some of my friends would wear black and shoot daggers at anyone wishing them a happy day. Even when I didn't have someone special to celebrate with, I would proudly wear red and enjoy the day. I believe today is about celebrating love in all of its forms. Love for significant others, love for family and love for friends.

In that spirit we are having a great Valentine's day. Milo had some friends over this morning for playing, snacking and crafting. The toddlers did a wonderful job of sharing toys and having fun together.

Later tonight, my parents will come over for some one-on-one time with Milo while Chris and I go out. Love is in the air!

Christmas Accomplished

I am so happy to report that this year I don't have the nasty Christmas hangover as in years past. My holiday plan worked and we all came out okay! Sure, there were some misses (like we somehow missed Mass on Christmas Eve yet again this year), but overall the Christmas holiday was joyful. We did many fun things together as a family (Zoo lights, visiting the trains, playing in the snow). Much yummy food was consumed and while Milo and I did bake cookies we didn't make so many that it became stressful. This I think is the key to the holiday season. Moderation. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. And just because two presents under the tree are nice doesn't mean 12 presents are nicer. In keeping with the moderation theme, I shrunk the menu for Christmas dinner here at our house. I used tried and true recipes rather than testing out new ones. It was wonderful and so much easier. To balance out the simple menu (ham, black bean soup, cornbread, sweet potatoes, and fennel citrus salad), I also made a beverage menu for each guest to order from. Fun, easy and special! Just how I like my gatherings.

Hoping you all had similarly wonderful Christmases spent with family and friends. At the end of the day, they are all who matters.

Holiday Plan

Thanks for your suggestions on dealing with holiday anxiety. Taking into consideration some of your advice (unfortunately a tropical vacation isn't in the cards this year), I've come up with the following plan of action to keep stress at a minimum and joy at a maximum.

• Enjoy myself! If I am having fun and am relaxed, those around me will be more likely to as well. Also, keep in mind that I can't control other people's words or actions, but I can control how I respond to them.
• Get main events on the calendar now. We're making a list of all the things we want to do over the next two months - concerts, tree hunting, lights viewing, shopping, caroling, worhsipping - and penciling those in now. That way it won't be December 20th and suddenly we realize we have no tree or presents under it (not that that happened last year or anything).
• Keep it all in perspective. At the risk of adding more things to my plate, I've signed up for a yoga / meditation home-based study. I think it will help keep me grounded.

Ah, Halloween

It strikes me that Halloween is quickly becoming my favorite holiday. There is candy, cute kids in costumes, good weather, and fun activities surrounding the main event (pumpkin patch and carving the pumpkins leading up to Trick or Treating). As a bonus to all the good about Halloween, what I like even more is all that is lacking about the holiday. There is no obligation to exchange presents, eat food you don't really like, or see absolutely everyone you are related to. Instead Halloween festivities are intimate and neighborhood centered. I like that.

Plus everyone just has fun and goes with the flow. Who has ever heard of Halloween guilt or families erupting into disagreements over what type of candy to give out? It just doesn't happen. It's not that serious.

Can you tell I am a little ambivalent about the upcoming holidays? I want the lightheartedness of Halloween to carry me through straight up until New Year's Eve. These pictures might help.

Do you have a favorite holiday or a tip to get me through the craziness of the next two months?